The Hong Kong Massacre

It may seem hard to believe now, but there was a time when John Woo was heralded as the most exciting action filmmaker on the planet. Films like Hard Boiled and The Killer weren't just fun popcorn films, they elevated the genre to new heights. They were the blueprint for Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Michael Bay and the Wachowskis. My love those classic '90s action films came flooding back to me as I played through The Hong Kong Massacre, a brand-new shoot 'em up that plays out like a loving tribute to both John Woo and Hotline Miami. And if you think that sounds like an exciting combination, then I'm here to tell you to be prepared for the most explosive action game of the year.

The year is 1992 and the police are desperately trying to piece together all the details on a massacre that happened between June 10th and 13th. You play the man at the center of the massacre, a former detective who is now in custody and detailing what happened hour by blood-soaked hour. The three dozen stages allow us to explore those violent days, exposing a plot filled with vengeance and brutal carnage.

It may sound flippant to call this John Woo's Hotline Miami, but that's exactly what it is. I mean, it literally opens with birds flying in slow motion. This has all the cliches you could want, including dual-wielding handguns, never reloading, glass flying everywhere and everybody diving through the air at half speed. It's the kind of game where you'll jump through windows, slide over tables, dive through the air, kill a half dozen bad guys and then run for cover in a single fluid move. To call this an exciting game is an understatement.

Part of the reason why all this works so well is because of the liberal use of slow motion. You can run out of it if you hold the button too long, but the gauge fills up in a hurry and it's basically always ready to use. This gives our hero a chance to not only see what's going on around him, but also dodge bullets and target multiple enemies without missing a beat. I never got bored of barreling through rooms in slow-mo while jumping on tables and killing everybody in dramatic fashion. And the fact that there's glass, debris and explosions happening all around you just made these bits more exciting. They're both exhilarating and satisfying.

It also helps that the stages are nicely varied. We get the usual indoor missions where there are bad guys in every room, as well as a bunch of levels that use the outdoors to great effect. We shoot our way through murky apartments, rooftops far above the city, high-price condos, streets draped in neon and fancy office buildings. And what makes these stages so much fun to play is that you can tackle them in multiple ways. There's rarely a linear path for you to follow, so a lot of the fun comes from experimenting with different tactics until you're able to kill all the bad guys without getting shot.

Amongst all the carnage is a story that involves you killing some genuinely evil men. Each day has you shooting your way through a bunch of levels in order to track down the man involved, which results in a fun, albeit repetitive, boss fight. It's just like in the movies, where the two guys are separated by a wall and racing after each other while shooting. You're constantly trying to catch up, all while hoping to get a clear shot on him from across the way. It's incredibly exciting the first time around, but loses a bit of its charm as you have to repeat this scenario for several more bosses. I wish they would have tapped into other action movie cliches instead of just reusing this one over and over.

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This would normally be where I would bring up all the negatives and tamper my excitement a little, but aside from a few repetitive boss fights, I don't have much bad to say about The Hong Kong Massacre. I love this game. If I'm nitpicking, I can point to the objectives always being the same. There's never a point where your goal is different from just going in and killing everybody in sight. It also might have been nice to see different secondary objectives. As it is, you'll get extra upgrade stars when you beat the stages in a certain amount of time, go in without using slow motion or having perfect aim. These are a fun challenge, but a little more variety would have been nice.

But let's be realistic here, these aren't genuine complaints. We can wish and want about every game, no matter how good it is. What we have in The Hong Kong Massacre is a near flawless execution on a concept and one of the most exciting shoot 'em ups I've played in years. It's a gorgeous looking game that evokes the very best of John Woo while gleefully celebrating that brand of chaotic action he helped to pioneer. Best of all, it's an absolute joy to play. There's a smoothness to the action that makes every shootout look like it was taken straight out of a movie. This is everything Stranglehold should have been.